thriftless drunken sailors

[George Thompson]

Someone recently asked about the spending habits of real, as opposed to rhetorical, drunken sailors.  Actually, my father had been one, in his youth, but by the time I was born he had given up the sea.
In the absence, then, of direct knowledge on the matter, I offer the following:

A Female Sailor.  --  Constable Joseph arrested yesterday, on suspicion, a young woman called "Shorty," whom the officer found in the Five Points, flush of money, and spending the same very freely.  He brought her before the magistrate, where on being questioned, she said that about thirteen months ago, she came off Blackwell's Island, having served out a sentence of three months as a common prostitute; and not wishing to engage again in the same pursuits of life to procure a living, she assumed male attire by procuring a suit of sailor's clothing, and . . . took passage in a whaling ship for a three year's cruise.  In this disguise this young woman maintained her position among the other men in the forecastle for over seven months, until . . . by a mere accident her sex was discovered.  [She was turned over to the American Consul in a port in India, who gave her a suit of women's clothes.]  About a week ago she arrived, and having over $60, which she had made by her trip, s
he was spending it at various groggeries on the Five Points, which fact looking rather suspicious, as it was supposed to have been stolen, caused the officer to bring her before Justice Mountfort.  This singular female has a very good looking countenance, short stature, and broad build; her hair was cut short; she both chewed and smoked tobacco, and talked sailor lingo very fluently, which is generally of a plain nature, embellished now and then in their own way.  Her manner of walking and movements of her body would appear to the observer as if she was a young man dressed up in female clothing.  The investigation proving satisfactory to the magistrate, she was discharged from custody.
NY Herald, January 16, 1850, p. 1, col. 6

The next refers to 1824; the writer was an out-of-work actor who had borrowed a portable telescope and had been showing people views of the moon through it from City Hall Park, NYC:
I had not counted my sixpences; but my pockets felt pretty heavy, and I was far from being dissatisfied with my two hours work; so, shouldering the instrument of my momentary good fortune, I wended my way homeward.  As I was passing through Leonard Street, I met three men, who proved to be the captain of a vessel and two of his sailors.  They hailed me, and demanded what sort of craft I had in tow.  I told them it was a powerful telescope, with which I had been viewing the stars, (I knew that the moon was out of the question, and had been for at least half an hour.)  "The stars!  I say, shipmate, let's have a squint at them stars."  "Certainly, sir; six cents a squint."  "Very well.  I say, Capt'n, and Jack, let's have eighteen pence worth of stars.  Up with your jury-mast."  "Yes."  "That's it -- steady!"  "What star will you have, gentlemen?"  "Capt'n, what star will you have?"  "What star? why, let's see -- Venus!"  "Oh, yes!  Wenus, by all means."  I raised up the telesc
ope and pointed it to the brightest star I could find, and when I turned the screws to regulate the focus, they commenced star-gazing.  After satisfying themselves with Wenus, they wanted to see Saturn, Jupiter, and a host of others.  I gratified them, at sixpence each, until the receipts from my nautical customers amounted to three dollars!  They were very tipsy, and I believe they would have given me their custom until daylight if I would have consented to stay with them.  When they had viewed a great number of planets and fixed stars, my astronomical knowledge began to give out, and I was obliged to show the same planets two or three times over, taking care to change the focus so as to give them a different appearance.  It was nearly one o'clock in the morning.  I proposed to my customers to close the exhibition, which they reluctantly agreed to; not, however, until I consented, in consideration of their being liberal patrons, to "throw in" a couple of planets for good mea
sure.
Sol Smith, Theatrical Management in the West and South for Thirty Years  First Published New York 1868.  New edition, with an Introduction and Index by Arthur Thomas Tees.  N. Y. & London: Benjamin Blom, 1968, pp. 35-36.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.